MilliporeSigma officially opened a life science hub in Massachusetts, US, in October 2017.

The $115m project was announced and began construction in July 2016. Located in Burlington, the new facility replaced MilliporeSigma’s existing location in Billerica, Massachusetts.

The new building will provide employees with a sustainable and collaborative working environment. All 850 employees of the Billerica facility have been relocated to the new campus, which is home to nearly 1,000 employees.

MilliporeSigma is the life sciences division of Merck.

Details of the Burlington facility

The 280,000ft² Burlington campus is spread over five storeys and includes office spaces with flexible workspaces, laboratories and a customer service and call centre. Training, display, storage and instrument repair rooms are also available.

The facility is also Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified and includes 70,000ft² of space for future expansion.

In addition, the building hosts Merck’s M Lab™ Collaboration Center, a 15,000ft² trademarked laboratory on the first floor. This shared laboratory allows customers to work alongside Merck scientists and engineers in a non-good manufacturing practice (GMP) environment to solve major bio-manufacturing challenges.

The centre provides application and technology demonstrations, as well as optimisation and scale-up of complex applications, development of optimised protocols and procedures, and troubleshooting unit operations. It also provides hands-on training, including formal bioprocess educational courses, webinars and instructional videos and troubleshooting guides.

Other M Lab™ centres are located in Brazil, China, France, India, Singapore and South Korea.

Incentives for the life science campus

The Burlington project was approved by the City of Massachusetts under the MassWorks Infrastructure Programme, which provides funding for projects that support economic development and job creation.

Merck’s project received a 15% exemption on property taxes for a period of 15 years.

Burlington campus location and contractors involved

MilliporeSigma is one of many biopharmaceutical companies setting up operations in Massachusetts and nearby areas. With the presence of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Harvard University and other academic institutions, the region is known to be one of the top hubs in the world for biopharmaceutical research and development (R&D).

Biopharmaceutical companies such as Bayer and Bristol-Myers Squibb have also set up innovation centres and shared laboratories similar to the M Lab™ centre in Massachusetts to accelerate their R&D activities.

Burlington-based The Gutierrez Company built the new life science campus.

Marketing commentary on Merck and MilliporeSigma

Merck was founded as a family-owned business in 1668. Operating as MilliporeSigma in the US and Canada, the company’s life sciences division, includes 65 manufacturing sites worldwide.

The life sciences division provides products and services based on process solutions, research solutions and applied solutions. The combined portfolio includes more than 300,000 products.

Some of the process solutions provided by the division include single-use manufacturing, pharmaceutical raw materials and engineering and validation services. Research solutions include bioscience reagents, specialty chemicals and lab separation tools. Applied solutions include lab water systems, critical raw materials, analytical reagents and point-of-use devices.